A group of 17 UC Davis students and 2 UC Davis alumni sued the university in federal court on Wednesday concerning the dramatic pepper-spraying incident that took place during a protest on November 18. The protest was organized in alignment with the Occupy Wall Street movement and garnered national attention.
The students claim that many of their constitutional rights were violated including freedom of speech, freedom to assemble as well as their fourth amendment right against “unreasonable search or seizure.” The students expressed their concern in a formal complaint stating, “On information and belief, certain plaintiffs were targeted by the police for forcible arrests based on their past political activism and associations at the University.”
This complaint targets UC Davis officials, including Chancellor Linda Katehi and the UCPD, causing much tension throughout the UC Davis campus. An attorney for the students, Mark E. Merin, said, “The University needs better policies on how it deals with protests and protesters. Students deserve to know what went wrong and how this could be allowed to happen. They want to make sure it never happens again.”
Michael Risher, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of northern California, said in a press release, “Using military-grade pepper spray and police violence against non-violent student protesters violates the constitution, and it’s just wrong. When the cost of speech is a shot of blinding, burning pepper spray in the face, speech is not free.”
Since the November 18 incident, multiple investigations have been launched within the UC system. The University of California knows that the incident was not handled well and has spent at least $100,000 in crisis communications consulting in the wake of the pepper spray backlash.Â
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